


Dancing with the Heart

by ElvhenGlory (wyrdo)



Series: Pride's folly [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, F/M, Spoilers, Those uniforms were hideous, Trespasser DLC, because...britches, plenty of lust all around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 18:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11719791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyrdo/pseuds/ElvhenGlory
Summary: A re-imagining of Halamshiral. Because those uniforms were hideous and i wanted a damn dress.





	Dancing with the Heart

"What do you think?" Ellana asked her friends and her assistant (she would have no maid), as she stepped out from behind the screen.

Josie gulped.

Cassandra gasped.

Sera laughed.

"It will definitely make waves." Leliana said with a small and very controlled smile.

The Inquisitor wore a mask of filigree lace and burnished bronze with halla horns and Elvhen filigree designs on it. This bow to her Dalish ancestry would be cause enough for comment, but it was just the beginning.

She wore a bodice of milky cream leather - the exact color of her hair - embroidered with more of those Dalish designs in bronze thread with a long overdress of the same leather slowly turning from buttercream to kelly green with the middle of the transition the exact everite color of her eyes. A green silk shirt peeked from under the bodice. It would have been breathtakingly beautiful, had she worn an underskirt. Instead, the overdress opened, showing breeches of the same material and same progression of color, wrapped in the Dalish style down her legs and tucked into kelly green half boots that made Leliana's eyes glitter with greed.

"Pay up, yeah?" Sera said once she could breathe and had dashed the tears from her eyes.

Josie continued to stare at the Inquisitor. Pondering how to have her name stricken from the rolls of inquisition members. She shook herself forcibly her eyes moving to Sera who bit her lip to keep from laughing again.

"What?"

"I SAID. Pay. Up. She's WEARIN' the SHOES. You BET me. I. won." Sera explained slowly as if talking to a child.

Absently Josie pulled some coin from a hidden pocket in her dress and held it out. They disappeared into Sera's bodice, Maker only knew where.

Josie closed her eyes and looked back at the inquisitor as if when she opened her eyes it would all be gone and she would be safe.

It wasn't.

She put her hand over her heart, unable to look away from the part of the outfit that ceased being a dress. Right exactly where the overdress opened showing DALISH leggings. Dancing shoes notwithstanding. Josie was convinced.

"We're doomed."

Sera couldn't help it. She laughed again, Ellana and Leliana joined her.

Josie, began shoving everybody out of the room.

Between two snorts, Sera turned back to the Inquisitor.

" _Elvhen Glory_ is gonna need new britches."

Josie slammed the door and turned back to the Inquisitor to try to clear this up. But not before Ellana heard Sera's final comments to Leliana

"Andraste's hairy left leg. I might need new britches."

"I need those shoes." Leliana responded.

\------

Ellana watched Solas from behind some great dead hero. He did not carry himself like an elven servant. He didn't even really seem the gentle retiring apostate.

His enigmatic response when she called him on it spoke of far more familiarity with the Orlesian game than one might expect from a Fereldan farmer.

And spirits aren't complex enough beings to understand politics. That man was an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, wearing a really odd hat, that somehow suited him.

\-------

As Morrigan walked away, Ellana put her elbows on the railing. Her mind going over the events of the evening. It was all so damn petty. And stupid. And nowhere near over.

Ellana understood at some level, but also agreed with Sera's assessment of Nobles. Also, she was having trouble seeing whatever it was she was staring out at. Possibly the water.

"Pissface, Shitebag, Ass biscuit, Snot splash, Lop eared, Son of an arse nut, Rot suck bastard!"

"I'm not surprised to find you out here." She heard Solas' voice behind her. Damn him and his sneaky toed bootless... She quickly dashed a tear from her eye as he put his own arms on the rail beside her. She could feel his warmth through the fine silk. "Though I was rather surprised at your eloquence just then."

She huffed and smiled weakly, it was far more amusing than she let on but the weight of the world crushed the laugh out of her. All of it, all the dumb not related to killing Corypheus crap that was going on.

"Sometimes Sera has all the right words. Especially since my Elvhen is just not good enough to call on in times of extreme emotoin."

"I could teach you translations, but i'm afraid they lose their shock value when only two people know what the words actually mean."

For the first time since that shem called her "rabbit" in the courtyard, the Inquisitor laughed. A true laugh, not the tinkling sounds of false flirtation, or the huffs of pretend laughter when some shem talks about detaining the elven staff. The sort of laugh that lights up the night and Solas watched the stress fall from her body, her light green -- Everite -- eyes sparkled with her amusement.

Unlike him, she did not thrive on the game.

His eyes devoured her as she turned to him. Her odd gown reminded him of something he'd seen Andruil wear once...before she lost her mind. Reminiscent, but still all her own, Elvhen and Dalish at the same time.

No longer up in a bun, her creamy waves of hair and braids danced down her back and left shoulder. The gold colored mask and the creamy dress together gave her the look of a golden halla in high grass.

But she was no halla. Panther, Bear, or Wolf perhaps. And she had just shown the royal family of Orlais how the game was played. She had artfully exposed and metaphorically flayed the Grand Duchess alive, in front of all assembled, then privately castrated the Grand Duke with one hand, while repairing the relationship of a Monarch and an elven spy with the other. He was glad his tunic covered his physical response.

"Thoughts?" he finished, looking her in the eyes.

"I have a feeling this is only a temporary victory." She looked away from him, and his heart broke.

She may play the game, but her mind was already several moves ahead.

"There is much more trouble ahead." he agreed with her assessment.

"For now," he said keeping the 'Please' unstated "focus on what is in front of you." He both did, and did not refer to himself. Like this, with her mask covering her vallaslin she bore no slave markings. Instead she shone with grace and majesty. Masked, they were a wolf and a halla. An elf and a queen or even a goddess. Not a liar and vile betrayer and his next victim.

He had an overpowering urge to tell her everything. He opened his mouth to say it, but one sight of the love in those eyes and he could not do it. He could not risk losing her...the orb, not her.

The end of the tune inside gave him the distraction he needed to offer her what she had requested of him earlier.

A dance. What she wanted, not what she deserved. She deserved the truth from him.

As they waltzed together on the balcony he drew her tightly to him. "Have I told you how exquisite you look tonight, vhenan?" his voice was husky and she stared at his lips.

His arms tightened again and his hand dropped from her scapula to the swell above her divine bottom, pressing her against his erection.

Her eyes closed and she gave a mewling cry that drove all thought from his head, save one. His breeches strained as the blood rushed from his head to his groin, overriding all his logical layers of self control and self loathing.

He growled pressing them both so hard against the rail that had she been taller, she would have toppled. He pressed her hands against the rail and towered over her, intent on ravaging every exposed piece of flesh (and then creating a few more to ravage) Her initial response was an ecstatic moan that was nearly his undoing, one of her feet lifted and a heel wrapped around his calf.

He would show her the sky, leave her so sated that she would have nothing left, he would...

He froze as he heard a slight click behind him.

Ellana made a pitiful sound as he stopped and reached to kiss his chin. Before she reached it, he turned quickly, placing himself between his heart and her attacker, fire igniting in his fingers. He would...

Behind him, she gasped and threw up a barrier around them both.

He realized the balcony was empty. Through a recently closed door, he saw black hair and a red uniformed back blocking any view of the two of them on the balcony.

_What was he thinking?_

"Ir abelas" he said, turning back and straightening her clothes. "That could have cost you all that you just won."

"Or granted me my hearts desire." she said, reaching for his face, causing him to look up from her clothing. "I'm not sorry." she said, eyes boring into his. Promising the world.

He closed his eyes, content to feel her hand on his face. "And it was far more interesting than staring toward a river and crying."

"Aye," he said "since the river is that way." he pointed toward the right.

Giving up on enticing him back to what they were doing, she straightened his own tunic and looked back into his eyes.

"Ar lath ma, Solas"

"Ar lath ma, vhenan'ara"

**Author's Note:**

> Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another. - unknown
> 
> This one actually grew out of my utter hatred of that awful uniform on the women in "Wicked hearts"
> 
> Special thanks to Steven Sondheim who taught me that ending a scene with "I need those shoes" can be a wonderful tension breaker.
> 
> Translations  
> "Ir abelas" = I'm sorry
> 
> "Ar lath ma" = I love you
> 
> "vhenan" = (my) heart (love)
> 
> "vhenan'ara" = (my) heart's desire


End file.
